"People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right."

Origin

At our human limits, when we've gone as far as flesh and imagination can take us, we meet the Eternal One, The Crow. His alabaster delicate features tell of his ivory goddess ancestry. Immemorially old, and inconsolable, he is there only for those who seek both revenge and love, and are willing to go all the way - and beyond.

The eternal Power of The Crow is a force which enters into people who have been killed, their death usually happening along with a loved one. Due to their grief and sadness, not only over their own death, but also over being unable to save their loved one, their soul is unable to rest.

At some point after their death the Power of The Crow enters into them, healing their wounds that caused their death, and undoing any embalming and decomposition that has taken place, and they are risen from the grave. The Crow then comes to them as a spirit guide, leading them towards what they must do to regain peace.

Creation

The Crow was created by James O'Barr, as an outlet for his own grief after a drunk-driver caused the death of his girlfriend.

Powers

The Crow is a force which enters a person and its powers are more closely related to that of vengeful ghosts. They include but are not limited to:

Enhanced Physical Abilities - Cat-like reflexes. Superhuman agility (ability to jump from building to building or rooftop to ground), and occasional strength as needed or possibly fuelled by emotions.

Invulnerability - Normal weapons do not affect it to any great degree. If it is affected by damage, the wounds will usually vanish in seconds. One exception to this is self harm. If The Avatar of The Crow chooses to damage theirself, it will last (seemingly permanently). In the original series, Eric cuts a crown of thorns into his bare chest, and slashed his own wrist several times.

Psychometry - Sometimes The Avatar of The Crow is able to feel and see past experiences through the touch of an object.

Empathy - They are able to feel the pain and other sensations of other people.

Clairvoyance - They are able to see through the eyes of their guiding Crow.

Vengeful Purpose - The Avatar essentially can have any abilities needed to accomplish their goal of vengeance. However, once those goals are met, they will lose their powers.

Avatars of The Crow

Eric

Eric and his fiancée are on their way back from a romantic get-away, when their vehicle breaks down on a deserted road. A car full of gang members stops not to help but to take advantage of the couple's misfortune. They shoot Eric in the head paralyzing him while they rape and kill his fiancée in the car, Eric dying hours later in the hospital. A year later, resurrected by The Crow, Eric exacts vengeance on the men responsible for their deaths.

Eric is again returned to the land of the living, this time to help Razor fight a demonic gang known as Pain. In the end Eric must face the events which lead to his death, and the realization that the reason his soul cannot rest is because he blames himself for being unable to save Shelly.

Eric's story is retold: Eric and Shelly's lives are cut short when a wrong apartment number leads a gang of drug lords to mistakenly murder them only days before their wedding. Now, Eric haunts the city as the Crow, a shadow administering revenge for not only his loss, but for others as well. A police officer enlists the aid of the Crow to uncover the truth about the jailed suspect of a murdered 9 year-old girl. As the Crow is flushing out information about the murder, he discovers that Shelly`s grave has been desecrated and her body has been removed. Another vigilante, a Native American named Walker, who communicates with a wolf, begins killing local murderers.

Joshua

Joshua is a Native American of the Crow Nation who became a farmer that adopted the ways of white. A group of Confederate soldiers killed him along with his wife and child and has being brought back to kill the soldiers that have reincarnated as biker gangs.

Jamie Osterberg

Jamie is a foreign exchange student studying in Tokyo, Japan. When his fiancee Haruko, and other friends vanish, only to return possessed by someone else, Jamie seeks answers, and when he finds out too much, he is killed. Resurrected by the power of The Crow, with a sword that seeks truth, he hunts down those responsible, discovering a web of horror that may lead him to kill his one true love.

The Man

At a death camp in 1940s Germany, a simple game of chess turns deadly, leading to the creation of a new avatar of The Crow. The Man refuses to tell his killer who he was, preferring to represent all the victims of the camp.

Curare

A little girl named Carrie is raped and murdered in Detroit. Years later her ghost calling itself Curare and empowered by the spirit of vengeance The Crow, helps retired detective Joe Salk find and kill her murderer.

Salvador

Salvador was a boxer in Juarez, Mexico who didn't throw a fight after taking a gang's money. They drugged him and forced him to watch the torture and murder of who he thought was his wife and son, though they were actually forced into slavery. Resurrected by The Crow he takes vengeance on the gang and seeks forgiveness from his family.

David Amadio

David is a 16 year old alter boy in Rome, when during a procession, him and his girlfriend are killed by Islamic Terrorists. One day later The Crow brings him back, and David vows to put the fear of God into the terrorists and send them to Hell.

Venus

Erin Murcoke tries to convince her twin sister Hara, who is a prostitute, to stop working for a group of abusive pimps. When Hara confronts them, they torture and kill both sisters. Resurrected by The Crow, Erin takes the name Venus and dons the clothing of a prostitute, to hunt down and emasculate those responsible for the sufferings of her and Hara.

Leandre

Leandre

From: The French Crow: The Medieval Crow

Leandre and his wife Jeanne are murdered and their son Lestal stolen on the orders of Lord Arthuro, who is seeking an heir. Leandre achieves his vengeance and eventually kills Arthuro, but accidentally kills Lestal. After his son's death, Leandre is abandoned by The Crow and must wander the Earth until he learns the true reason for his restless wandering. One of his victims of vengeance over the centuries is Jack the Ripper, whose body he disposes of by dumping it in the river.

Vincent

Vincent

From: The French Crow: La Fiancée du Corbeau (The Bride of The Crow)

Vincent is a young make-up artist in the 1930s who falls in love with Evy, an actress. He tries to rescue Evy from being raped by a gang of stagehands but is murdered by them, and he returns a year later, aided by The Crow, to seek vengeance.

Elorah

Elorah

From: The French Crow: Le Sang des Innocents (The Blood of Innocents)

Elorah is an undercover police officer investigating a narcotics baron; after being murdered and revived by The Crow, she must now face not only her murderer but his creation: a cyborg that feeds on blood.

Other Media

Films

The Crow

Eric Draven (played by Brandon Lee) was the lead guitar player and singer of a band named Hangman's Joke. He and his fiancee Shelly Webster were to be married on Halloween night. The night of Halloween eve (Devil's night), thugs known as Fun Boy, T-Bird, Skank, and Tin-Tin came to Eric's apartment to punish Shelly for overhearing too much information. Under the orders of the gangster Top Dollar. Eric walked in while they were raping her and tried to save her but got killed in the process when they threw him out of a sixteenth story window. A year later, the Crow brought Eric back to life to make things right.

This movie was made famous because of an immense misfortune. Brandon Lee, son of Kung-Fu master and martial art legend, was interpreting the role of Eric Draven and also was the fight choreographer. In his very short and rising career, this was Brandon's big break. In a scene near the end, the character stands in front of an army of men firing repeatedly at him.

One of the prop weapons was faulty. The cap of a blank accidentally got lodged in his spine after penetrating his abdomen. The next day at 1:04 PM, Brandon died. His body was flown to Seattle to be buried beside his father (who also died while filming) in Lake View Cemetery. It is suggested that the movie would have been far less popular if Brandon Lee lived, as a result of all the media attention.

The Crow: City of Angels

Years after the events of the first movie, Sarah (now portrayed by Mia Kirshner) has moved to Los Angeles, and became a tattoo artist. She starts having nightmares of a man and his son who have been murdered. Ashe Corven (Vincent Perez) is resurrected by The Crow to avenge the deaths of him and his son, who were killed in a gang hit.

In his endeavors, Ashe is assisted by Sarah, who provides Ashe's facial make-up in honor of Eric, and helps him in his mission. Like his predecessor, Ashe successfully kills each of the gang members until he meets the crime boss who ordered his death. The crime boss, Judah Earl (Richard Brooks), wishes to obtain Ashe's powers for himself, and will do his worst to gain them.

The Crow: Salvation

Alex Corvis (Eric Mabius) is falsely convicted of the murdering of his girlfriend, Lauren (Jodi Lyn O' Keefe), and then executed for the crime. Alex is assisted by Lauren's younger sister, Erin (Kirsten Dunst), as they uncover the mystery surrounding the murder. This film was based on the book The Crow: The Lazarus Heart with the GLBT elements removed from the plot.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer

Jimmy Cuervo and his girlfriend were murdered by a Satanic cult who called themselves The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Jimmy came back as The Crow and began to kill the cult members one by one. This film was loosely based on the book of the same name.

TV Show

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

This television series had a one season run that lasted a total of 22 episodes, it starred Mark Dacascos as Eric Draven and basically retold the events of the movie in it's first episode but rather then returning to his grave Eric stayed on Earth and became a crime fighter. The series also gave Shelly a much larger role, and featured other Crow characters such as Skull Cowboy, and an episode loosely based on The Crow Dead Time, depicting Eric and Shelly as reincarnations of Joshua (renamed Blackfeather) and his wife from that graphic novel and Top Dollar and T-Bird's gang as reincarnations of the confederate soldiers who killed them. The series also expanded on Eric's past, revealing that he was an adopted Vietnam war orphan, and had a brother named Chris Draven. The series also offered the new concept of evil versions of a Crow called Snakes, the evil avatars' guides being Pythons rather then Crows. In the episode 'Birds of a Feather' the series introduced a female avatar of The Crow named Hannah Foster AKA Talon (loosely based on Razor from The Crow/Razor), who was brutally murdered along with her daughter by a paedophile. She later befriends Eric, and they both help each other. The series ended on a cliffhanger with Shelly jumping through a Crow shaped portal in the land of the dead at the close of it's final episode.

Five, four, three, two... Jared Poe counts the days on Louisiana's Death Row. The controversial S&M photographer has been condemned to die for killing his lover. He doesn't know who did it. Only that he didn't.Can he clear his name and find the real killer in time?No. For this is no ordinary thriller. We are in the dark realm of The Crow, and Jared must feel the cold shudder of Death; must hear the beating black wings; must prowl the shadowy goth netherworld of New Orleans, to prove he was no killer when he died.And find out what kind of killer he has become.

The Crow: Clash by Night

The Crow: Clash by Night by Chet WIlliamson

A crazed militia has planted a bomb in a day-care center, and a dedicated teacher discovers it just in time to get herself and the children to safety.Almost. For we are in the dark universe of the crow, where the innocent must die so that justice can triumph.Where a woman devoted to peace must don camouflage as she prowls with her black-winged familiar through the tangled underworld of hate on a search-and-destroy mission that leads her from gun shows to the rubble of the disaster.A rubble that is stirring with new and hideous life...

The Crow: Quoth The Crow

The Crow: Quoth The Crow by David Bischoff

William Blessing is obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe. Like Poe, he is a writer of dark fantasy. And like Poe, he has powerful enemies. One of them pretends to be a friend, even as he plots to murder William and steal his wife. Blessing's only hope is to learn the truth about his "friend" before...But this is the realm of the Crow, where the grave is the doorway to the truth. William must walk through it to discover Poe's final secret. Then, and only then, with the help of a dark-winged "Raven," can he return to feed on the human carrion who raped his wife and slaughtered his soul.

The Crow: Temple of Night

The Crow: Temple of Night by S.P. Somtow

Turn-of-the-century Bangkok is a glittering modern city where high-tech industry and ancient mystery meet. It is a powerhouse of international finance by day ... and a playground of depravity by night. The Klong Toey shantytowns are home to shadowy eroticemporiums, where millionaire celebrities act out their darkest sexual fantasies, protected by money, influence, and American diplomacy.Enter a young American journalist, assigned to expose the latest cover-up. Stephen is about to break the two cardinal rules of journalism: Don't fall in love. And don't get killed....

The Crow: The Wicked Prayer

The Crow: Wicked Prayer by Norman Partridge

John Church and Kyra Damon would like nothing more than to be immortal but Leticia Dreams the Truth hardin is a bit hesitant to help them. They need her eyes for the task. Literally she's a blue-eyed Crow, an extremely rare commodity. All of which is why Dan finds himself in Arizona heading for a showdown between forces of light and dark.

The Crow: Hellbound

The Crow: Hellbound by A.A. Attanasio

A demon named Dren is looking for salvation. Satan's fiery underworld has become a foreign place to him. He feels he is different from the other souls. He's changed over time. He's ready for redemption. But getting out of hell is no easy task. Escaping was the easy part. But now, alone in a world unfamiliar to him, Dren must save a single soul in order to pass on to the heavens above.Billy is a young hoodlum working for a big-time mobster. Like Dren he has also changed. He wants out of the seedy underworld he calls his home. Just, one more run, one more big payday, and he's finished with it all. He'll, get his cash, grab the woman he loves, and be gone forever. But the mob doesn't look kindly on deserters.Satan has sent two rogue demons from hell to stop Dren. The mob has hired a conjurer named Nadja to kill Billy. In the end, the two must call on the powers of the Crow to, save them both -- waging a full-scale war on the mobsters of Earth above and the lord of darkness below.